Fragrance of the Night
by SanoraElle
Summary: Amber is a fragrancer. She has a special gift. The Volturi have her. The wolfpack wants her.
1. Chapter 1

_I had this idea in my head for quiet some time now and am finally brave enough to give it a try._

_English is not my native language and this chapter is not betad, so if you find any mistakes…I'm sorry ;) _

_**Chapter One**_

My brush fell to the floor as I tried to comb through my dark brown hair, pulling angrily at the tangled mess. I stared at my hands, they were shaking.

I was nervous, I was scared. No, I was terrified.

Footsteps down the hall.

I picked up the brush and put it on my dresser. Next to the jewelry box, next to the pills.

My mother had fallen sick with a fever a few days ago and now she had passed away last night. It stung.

So I was terrified and alone. That's not technically true since I belonged to THEM. But I felt alone.

The door burst open, in came Jane, greeting me with her blank stare and empty red eyes.

"What's this, no tears?" she asked mockingly. I let my eyes wander off towards my mother's cold and empty bed. I would grieve, but not now. Not when THEY expected me to. THEY were already expecting too much of me.

The hair in the back of my neck stood up. I knew without looking that Aro had just entered our…my room. I could feel his icy stare on me, waiting for me to turn around.

I heard him sniff the air.

"Just like your mother…every time she was upset, she would work on a new…creation all night."

At those words I did turn around, hurt evident on my face.

We both knew that I was like my mother. At least when it came to smells, perfumes, fragrances…

Jane scrunched up her nose. "And I thought she had forgotten to shower last night."

I glared at her. That mix of smells, jasmine and rose, I tried to recreate the way my mother had smelled to me. I had tried to find some comfort somehow. Jane just tried to make it even harder on me, of course she had recognized my mother's scent. I could feel my blood racing through my veins, rage taking over.

Jane smiled, showing her sharp teeth. "See, this is way better, I like the smell of your blood…" Damn, I had forgotten to use my perfume!

"Enough!" Aro yelled as he lifted his arm in my direction. "Our young Amber here just lost her only living relative, her mother." I saw his eyes glinting. "Our precious jewel…as your name already says."

I knew THEY needed me, the Volturi needed me. Me and my gift. Though I really think more of it as a curse.

It's what brought me and my ancestors here. Sometimes it would skip a generation, but they were still kept here in Italy, in the tight grip of the Volturi. Two centuries ago, we used to live in England, now we were preserving our home by talking English. Of course it had changed over the years, we talked like everybody else out there. But we never went out there, we weren't allowed to. We were treated like some royal prisoners in a golden cage. A golden cage with the occasional red stain.

Blood.

The Volturi were the royalty of all vampires. And they needed us fragrancers. We weren't witches, but we could work our own kind of magic with smells.

And we were the only ones that could make THE fragrance for them.

The Volturi were the real rulers of the world. Except no one knew. They were watching and interfering whenever they thought it necessary. Always taking advantage, always benefiting.

But this wasn't the old days anymore, this was 21st century. They couldn't stay that well-hidden. So they had sought us out, humans, gifted humans, fragrancers, to create a unique and powerful fragrance that covers the smell of human blood, neutralizes it and makes it possible for them to walk amongst us.

THE fragrance was everywhere. In every perfume that you could buy, in every deodorant, in every shampoo, body lotion, detergent. Everywhere.

But they didn't trust anybody. Aro didn't trust anybody, not even his own kind. So nobody knew the composition of different essential oils and fragrances that it consisted of. Besides him and us.

Aro took my hand and I almost pulled back. They were icy…as cold as his soul. If he even had one.

"Shall we..?" he asked me.

And now I was THE fragrancer. Now it was my turn.

_So, I hope you liked my idea so far. I'd really appreciate it if you would let me know what you think!_

_Love, Sanora_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Aro led me down the long winding corridor and deeper into the earth beneath Volterra. I could hear the echoes from above as Heidi brought in…tourists. Victims. I had gotten used to it, as horrible as it sounds. I had to. Crying myself to sleep every night thinking about those poor people didn't change a thing. But I still didn't get why the Volturi needed human blood, why couldn't they drink blood from animals. I used to eavesdrop on some of their meetings where they talked about weak vampires who drank only blood from animals. I always thought that made them stronger than the Volturi. At least their character. Of course Aro and the others must have known I was listening, but they didn't really care. Most of the time they talked about really nasty, cruel and wrong stuff that got me scared. I bet they liked that.

We stopped in front of a giant old wooden door, the laboratory. Aro opened the door, tossed me in and locked it up right behind me.

It was freezing. One of the things I had never gotten used to. My room was the only room with a fire place. The whole entire "palace" and the 3 levels below the ground were always cold. Vampires don't need a heater.

I looked around. Everything was familiar, but also new. It was the first time I was alone in here. There were old shelves all around the room, full of glass bottles with different essential oils, perfumes, creations, dried herbs, fruits and sometimes blood in special coolers. Some of the vampires had found their personal favorite "flavor" and wanted to preserve it. Sick.

The giant table in the middle would have fit Arthur and all his knights, but here it was just covered in papers, notes, spots and candle wax. Besides that, two chairs, a sink and some tools, there was nothing else in this room.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, I had the worst headache ever. Stress. Grieve. I walked over to one of the shelves and grabbed the lavender oil and some orange oil and took a sniff. Always worked for me. But the one smell that always soothed me was the rich, earthy, piney smell of amber. Not that surprising, my name is Amber. My mother's name was Rose, guess what her favorite smell was.

My mother.

I had no clue how I should survive here without her. I had to keep myself occupied. Forget everything and just…work. I walked back over to the table and started mixing. I didn't need a recipe, I was literary born for this. And without even realizing it, I had just made another portion of the Fragrance. The first few years of my life I had been pondering over the question of right or wrong. I had never gotten to a real answer, but I knew that it softened or even neutralized the smell of blood, so I always thought that it was more right than wrong. But the past few months had confused me. They still drank human blood. It didn't stop them. It just "stopped" the blood lust. And it made them powerful. It helped keeping their secret and hiding who they really were. And then about a week ago I made my first Fragrance. Two days later my mother got sick and died. I couldn't help the dark thought that grew in my mind of it being my fault. They knew that I was ready, they didn't need my mother anymore.

It made me sick and angry. They were always so…secure about everything. What if I died, what if I got sick, what if they lost their fragrancer? They didn't care. It had never happened before, but they could just go and get a new one, they had enough samples for a new fragrancer to learn. But that would be too much work, too time-consuming, so they rather kept me. I was only 17 and the child in me was sometimes very close to just wanting to check out the limits, see how far they would let me go before they would just replace me.

I shook my head, smile playing on my lips. Yeah, that would be fun, but too dangerous. Despite my situation, I had still some sense of self-preservation left in me. My main problem each and every day was the loneliness. My only companion had been my mother and now she was gone. That left me and my diary. Pathetic, I know, but it gave me a feeling of talking to someone. Sometimes Aro or Jane would catch me talking to one of the tourists…that never ended well. They usually ended up being killed on the spot, just as a warning to me and to simply show me my place. They could easily break me into pieces if they ever felt like it. As if the constant nightmares of blood, screaming and bone-splitting didn't already do that.

The sound of the heavy door opening made me jump. I sniffed the air. Jane. Each vampire had a kind of natural perfume; the sole purpose was to seduce their victims. "I see you've been productive." Jane said while wiping away a bit of blood in the corner of her mouth. I walked past her and was let to my room. It was always wiser to not have a conversation with that vampire. It was best to give her the feeling that she could actually intimidate me, though Aro was the only one who really could.

Though not really knowing anybody, not having friends or any other human around except for the other people who worked for the Volturi, I was never shy and way to stubborn. I smiled at that. Sometimes I asked myself if I would ever have been able to survive out there.

Back in my room, I finally cried. I cried for my mother. It felt good to finally let the tears falls. Of course they could probably smell or hear it, but it was still better than doing it in front of them. It was way better to fall apart in private. After a few minutes I stopped with a feeling of not having one tear left in my body. I got up and got my favorite book out from underneath my bed. If they knew I had it, they would get really mad. But they never checked the room; we weren't a threat to them. I sat down on my bed, pulling the covers over me and opened the book.

"The legend of werewolves"…

_Thanks to Godisgood3 and Melanie for their reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Love, Sanora_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you so much for the interest in this story! Just a short chapter with a bit of wolf in it._

**Chapter Three**

I read through the pages like almost every night. I couldn't really tell why, but somehow I liked the thought about werewolves out there. I mean, clearly vampires were real, so why not werewolves? I felt bad for the 'real' werewolves…the ones who couldn't control it. I preferred the stories about shape shifters. People phasing into wolves to protect humans from vampires… Sometimes reading about them made me all dreamy and hopeful and comforted me in this hell of a life.

My mother had given this book to me one night. She had written a little note on the first page, for our talking was hardly ever private. She had gotten it from the front desk in the library years back, even before I was born. If Aro knew he'd be really pissed. But I guess nobody really cared about this book.

I loved to look at the pictures and illustrations, some very old, and how they portrayed werewolves. I skimmed through the pages and stopped suddenly. What was that?! My mother had written two words next to what looked like some kind of symbol, round and a bit scary with the face of a wolf hidden in it. She must had done this before her death while she was sick. I quickly checked what the book said about this symbol…

"Quileute Tribe"

That was…weird. The two words my mother had written next to it were "checked" and "sent".

Sam walked home with the letter in his hand. It had already been weird when the Elders called him from patrol, but asking for his opinion on a serious matter, as they said, was beyond normal. He couldn't imagine what could be so important at the moment when everything was actually going fine for the first time after those leeches had left for good. Maybe it had something to do with that Swan girl, although she had moved back to…Phoenix? Yeah, Phoenix. Poor Jake still had trouble with the fact that she had left, but for the rest of the pack it had been a relief. He chuckled, that girl had been quiet a handful. Or pawful. He really hoped the letter had nothing to do with her.

At home, he sat down in a kitchen chair with Emily already waiting for him. She was patient as always and waited for him to open it. He sighed and took the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it.

"Dear Quileute Tribe,

I do not know if the legends are true, but I do know that I need your help. The Fragrance is real. I will be gone soon. My daughter will be the Fragrancer. She is in danger. Volterra, Italy.

Rose"

Sam suddenly felt sick as he looked at the scribbled words which must had been written in a hurry. Only last month had the Elders talked about other tribes having mentioned something about a fragrance that could cover up the smell of human blood and powerful vampires using it to their own advantage. He had thought that it sounded like some sort of fairytale out of a bad storybook. Never in his wildest dreams had it occurred to him that these rumors could be true.

He looked at Emily, who just stared at him, shock in her eyes, and he already knew what she would say. Only seconds later she did.

"The girl."

_University is pretty hard on me these days and I have exams coming up…so please be gentle on me :D_

_Love, Sanora_


End file.
